The 68th Wyoming Legislature — the first body of state lawmakers controlled by a far-right Freedom Caucus — will consider a blockbuster slate of hot-button energy bills when it convenes in January.
Wyoming residents packed legislative hearings and other meetings last year to demand greater transparency and public input regarding small mining operations. Lawmakers instead advanced a draft measure to expand the list of operations excluded from public scrutiny during the permitting process.
Wyomingites also voiced concerns about the state warehousing radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. But they had to wait nearly two months to review and comment on a proposed policy change on the matter after Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee Co-chairman Donald Burkhart Jr., R-Rawlins, added it to the committee’s bills list literally in the last minutes of a two-day hearing in July and refused to share it publicly.